Child identity theft sufferers hurt most often by their family

Identity thieves have zeroed in on the most vulnerable. New research shows that identity thieves are focusing increasingly on children because parents do not pay attention and the theft can go undetected for years.

Identity theft hurtful towards children

There have been thousands already sufferers of identity theft while thousands more have the risk there nevertheless. A Carnegie Mellon University CyLab cybersecurity research center report explained this clearly. The report examined the identity protection scans of 42,232 kids conducted in 2009-10 by the Debix AllClear ID Protection Network after parents were notified their children’s IDs may have been compromised. The Debix AllClear ID data showed 4,311 of the children, just a little more than 10 percent, had their Social Security numbers in use by identity thieves. That’s a child identity theft rate 51 times higher than the 0.2 percent of U.S. adults targeted by identity thieves, based on 663 attacks against 347,362 adults listed in Debix AllClear ID. The youngest it ever got was a five month old. The identity was stolen nevertheless. A 17-year old girl from Arizona found she was $725,000 in debt with 42 open accounts including mortgages, car loans and cha! rge cards. There were eight individuals that had her Social Security number. A 14-year-old boy from Kentucky had a credit score going back 10 years listing a mortgage foreclosure.

It is friendly fraud with children

After child identity theft began in the early 1980s, it has come even farther. The Social Security Administration got orders from the Internal Revenue Service. It said that children should be given Social Security numbers to go with them. Everyone with access to the Social Security numbers would typically abuse them. Kids easily became sufferers of this. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, “friendly fraud” made up 30 percent of child identity theft cases in 2010. Because credit checks do not verify age, identity thieves can freely take out loans, get charge cards and create accounts. One young man in Florida got help after finding out his father had stolen his identity and hurt his credit years before from the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Child identity theft solutions

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, every child should be taught out identity theft. They should know sharing information on the Internet isn’t always safe. All personal information, including Social Security numbers and birth certificates, should be kept in a secure place. Be worried about a child having had credit opened if mail comes in the child’s name. If you are a parent, gets a-hold of the major credit agencies. Get a credit report for the child. If no credit history exists, the child is likely in the clear. If you have a credit history for the child, file a security alert. Do this at TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Use the credit report to file a police report also. A police report listing the fraudulent accounts obligates the credit reporting agencies to remove them from the credit rating within 30 days.

Information from

Forbes

blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2011/03/31/protecting-your-child-from-identity-theft/

Atlanta Journal Constitution

ajc.com/news/child-identity-theft-increases-572552.html

Wallet Pop

walletpop.com/2011/04/05/report-as-child-id-theft-grows-rapidly-consider-these-precauti/